Nightmares of Power

By Adalanta

Disclaimer: The plot is the only thing that is mine.

Author's Note: The idea for this got into my head and absolutely refused to leave until I exorcised it by writing this chapter. This story is mainly about Jesse, Emma, and Adam, but I could not, in good conscience, completely ignore Shalimar and Brennan. Some of you might disagree with my portrayal of these two characters, but you have to remember that they have both gone through some very trying events, so please don't flame me too badly. They are human, after all (mostly anyways). Oh, yes. This story is growing a little longer than I expected, so there will be at least two more chapters, if not more than that. Once again, I crave reviews so please take a second and let me know how I'm doing or email me at adalanta14@yahoo.com.

Chapter Three

"Adam?" the voice floated through the corridors of Sanctuary, ricocheting off of the smooth walls and bouncing off the floors, startling him out of a light sleep. He blinked wearily and fought a sigh as the voice called again. "Adam?"

Well, he thought miserably, I knew they'd find out sooner or later, but I had hoped they would both sleep in a little longer this morning. They did have a busy day yesterday. But, then again, not everything goes as expected, does it? he asked himself wryly.

Glancing at the two figures only a few feet away, he came to a decision. Jesse was deeply asleep, still heavily medicated to keep his mind from replaying yesterday's events in his sleep. Emma had finally given in to her body's demands and had curled up in the chair next to Jesse's bed. She was a notorious light sleeper, and, even as he watched, she shifted her position restlessly, unconsciously moving her head in the direction that the voice had come from. Adam wasn't sure if it was the voice that was waking her or the person's emotions, but either way, if he didn't leave right now, she would awaken. And right now, she needs all the sleep that she can get.

Adam stood up and walked quietly out of the medical bay, speaking into his comm-ring as he moved. "Shalimar?"

"Adam," he heard the relief shine through her voice. "Where is everybody? Jesse's not in her room and neither is Emma. You didn't send them on a mission without us, did you?" The audible relief was now tinged with suspicion.

He couldn't keep his mouth from turning up from that one. I wonder if Brennan's up yet. I'd rather not have to explain this twice. Besides, if Brennan is there, he might be able to calm her down a bit – might. "Have you seen Brennan this morning?"

"Yeah, he's right here. Why?"

Breathing a small sigh of relief, he answered as nonchalantly as possible, "Great. Can you two meet me in the training room?"

"Sure, Adam." Brennan's voice now came over the link, sounding both puzzled and tired. "Actually, we're already there. Thought we might find someone here."

"I'll be there in a minute." Walking through the corridor, Adam tried to think of the best way to tell the others what had happened to their teammate and friend, but it wasn't as easy as he thought. His brilliant, scientist mind still had not come up with a good explanation by the time he entered the room.

He hesitated briefly just out of sight before the threshold, suddenly reluctant to face the two mutants and admit his grievous, almost deadly, error. Even though Emma had tried to reassure him that Jesse's condition wasn't his fault and that he couldn't have foreseen it, doubt and self-blame still swirled about him, clinging to his soul like heavy fog to the ground. Finally, he shook his head, took a deep breath, and entered the door, desperately trying to hide his roiling emotions.

As soon as he stepped through the doorway, he knew he had failed.

The moment Shalimar Fox laid eyes on him, her feral sense had identified his raging emotions, causing her brown eyes to briefly flash yellow, a sure sign that she was upset, and her body to visibly tense. She held her hands clenched at her side, fists white-knuckled with tension. She took three steps towards him and began to fire questions at him, "Adam, what's wrong? Where's Jesse and Emma?"

He held his hands up in front of his chest, palms out as if surrendering to a foe, the motion was meant to calm the young woman. "Shalimar, calm down. Everything's under control." …I think…"Sit down, you two."

Shalimar reluctantly sat down but only after Brennan Mulwray gently took her by the arm and lead her over to the couch nearby. Adam could tell she was extremely worried…she didn't even notice that the elemental had physically led her away. Any other day, she would have yanked her arm out of his grip or thrown him to the ground with her superhuman strength and agility. Once they were both settled, Adam took a seat across from them and explained what had happened, although he skimmed over some of the more serious details to lessen the blow. He hoped that would keep both of the young people - especially Shalimar, who was the closest to Jesse - from panicking.

It didn't work.

The instant he had finished, Shal bounded to her feet, ready to bolt for the door and the medical bay beyond. Adam knew how she felt - how they all felt. Her teammate/best friend/brother was hurting, and she needed to go to him, to help and comfort him. But before she had gotten three feet away, he grabbed her wrist, forcing her to pause momentarily. "No, Shal. You can't go to him, not like this."

She whipped her head around to face him, her long blond hair flying wildly between them, her eyes flashing gold, narrowed in rage. "Why…not?" She hissed between her clenched teeth.

With any other feral, Adam might have backed down, but not with this one. He'd known her for too long…she would never attack him, no matter how upset or angry she was. He did, however, feel slightly relieved when Brennan stepped up to her side and put a strong arm around her shoulder to comfort her. Adam spoke firmly, "You'll end up doing more harm than good, Shal. Jesse can't hear you right now - he's completely out. You can't help him, at least, not yet. And Emma just finally dozed off for the first time since this all began. If you go in there right now, emoting like you are, you'll wake her up, and right now, I need her to rest and prepare for what's ahead." He paused for a moment, then reached out and gently touched her upper arm. "I know you want to see him, and you will - but not right now…not till you calm down."

He watched as Shalimar tried to bring herself under control, closing her eyes and taking slow, deep breaths. But as the rage left her, something else happened, as well.

She just…crumpled.

Only Brennan's quick reflexes and strong arms kept her from collapsing onto the hard floor as her knees went out from under her. Catching her effortlessly, Brennan held her close and quickly sat down on the couch once again, cradling her body.

Too shocked to move, Adam just stood frozen in place, staring at the trembling feral caught close in the elemental's tender embrace. What happened? he asked himself, stunned. Shal has never - ever - reacted like this before. She's always the strong one, the encourager, the comforter. As his bewildered mind stumbled through one thought after another, trying to figure out what had happened, he finally got a good, close look at her face and felt his heart begin to beat faster in response to the intense scrutiny.

Shalimar's normally golden skin had faded into a chalky white, her face devoid of any color except for the dark bruising under her eyes - the undeniable evidence of lack of sleep. Her strong body shivered slightly in Brennan's arms, and he whispered soothingly to her, gently stroking her long hair as she shifted within his embrace, pressing her face into his wide chest.

As Brennan held her tightly, he laid his chin down on the top of her head and closed his eyes. Adam's examination moved from Shalimar to Brennan, quickly taking in the young man's similarly pale countenance and the black bruising under his eyes. But where Shalimar looked extremely tired…Brennan looked completely exhausted. His wide, strong hands trembled ever so slightly on Shalimar's back and head.

It's a miracle that he's breathing, not to mention being up and moving about, after being so seriously electrocuted yesterday at the plant. Adam looked down at the floor, once again reliving those horrifying moments when Brennan had completely stopped breathing, his body thrown into shock from the immense force of the electrical current surging uncontrolled through his water soaked body. Emma and Shalimar had had to perform CPR on him to get him to start breathing again. Those few moments had lasted an eternity as he had waited, breathless, motionless, for the verdict of life or death for one of his children.

Suddenly, something clicked in his mind, and everything made sense once more. Shalimar had not collapsed just because of learning about Jesse's serious condition, which would have been enough to send her into a panic on a normal day, but because of the terrifying events that had all taken place within the course of twenty-four hours. First, Jesse had been infected with the nerve gas. Then, she had watched Brennan being electrocuted nearly to death. Finally, she had watched Jesse loose control of his molecular abilities and nearly phase himself into oblivion. She'd seen two of her closest friends teetering on the brink of death. It's no wonder she collapsed, he concluded grimly. I'm surprised this didn't happen last night.

As if hearing Adam's thoughts, Brennan's eyes snapped open, and he stared right at Adam, dark brown eyes black with worry and fear. For a long moment, neither man spoke. Brennan broke the silence by speaking softly, almost inaudibly. "She stayed in my room all last night, watching over me, talking to me…waking me up when my dreams got too…intense. She was so worried about me, Adam…I don't think she slept at all."

He paused as the subject of his words moved a bit in his arms. "Whenever I woke up, she was there by my side…holding my hand…talking softly." He squeezed his eyes shut, his face drawn, new lines of pain etched into his young features. "I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't been there." His eyes flew open, glistening suspiciously. "She'd been through so much herself, Adam, and yet she put aside her own hurts and fears to try to help me." He clenched his jaw and looked away from the older man, unable to face him.

Adam didn't know what to say, so he said nothing. After all, what can I say? There's nothing I can say or do to make what happened go away.

He was surprised that Brennan had opened up to him. Both Jesse and Brennan had a habit of keeping matters to themselves and letting them fester like an infected wound until it simply grew too large and then - pop! The anger would come flooding out. After this is all over and Jesse is all right, I think I'd better have a talk with him about everything, he decided mentally. He'll need to talk about it before it will begin to fade…and something like that won't go away over night.

"Adam…how is Jesse really?" Brennan asked after a long period of silence, arms wrapped securely around Shalimar, who had long since grown still, appearing to be asleep.

Adam sighed silently to himself, secretly hoping that the young man would be too concerned with Shal to dig any deeper into Jesse's condition. I should have known better. Jesse's like a younger brother to Brennan, just like he is to Shal. "He's stable. I've got him on a medication that will help him get some rest and keep his subconscious from going over yesterday's events. With plenty of sleep, he should be fine." He could have kicked himself when he heard the word 'should' come out of his mouth and held his breath, waiting to see if Brennan would notice. He didn't have long to wait.

"Should?" Brennan frowned. "What do you mean 'should'? What aren't you telling me, Adam? I want the truth. Now. Jesse wasn't just having nightmares, was he? It's more serious than that."

Cursing mentally, he met the elemental's direct gaze and was forced to reconsider his plan. "He went into shock - twice - nearly stopped breathing the first time. If Emma hadn't pulled him out of his nightmare when she did…he wouldn't have survived. Jesse would have phased himself out of existence or he would have died from severe shock."

The young mutant was silent for a moment, staring away from Adam with unseeing eyes, trying to digest the new, disturbing information. Finally, he turned back. "Will he be all right?" he asked.

"He will if Emma can get through to him. He has…emotional issues…that need to be worked out - things that are bothering him so much that he was forced to push them aside to keep functioning. The longer it takes for him to discuss what happened, the harder it'll be for him to face."

"So Emma's going to force her way in." Brennan and Adam started when the soft voice spoke. Shalimar lifted her head wearily from Brennan's chest and turned towards them, an unreadable expression masking her emotions. "Is that right?"

He nodded. "If Jesse doesn't speak to her voluntarily, she's supposed to push her way inside to find out what's wrong. She already has some idea - feelings and images that she picked up both times when she was in his mind - but she doubts that what she got earlier is everything." He shook his head, frustration filling his soul. "She's reluctant to push because it will hurt Jesse both physically and mentally, but she understands that it has to be done if he is to heal. There's no other way. It's too dangerous to keep this heavily sedated for long, and it's impossible to keep him under constant watch. It would cause him even more damage."

"Then it has to be done," Shalimar said in an emotionless voice. She sighed heavily and slowly extricated herself from Brennan's embrace, although she still maintained contact, her right hand holding his left one tightly. The expressionless mask fell away, leaving behind a young woman with sorrow-filled eyes and worry clouding her face. She leaned forward towards Adam and rested her elbows on her knees. "I want to see him, Adam…I need to see him. Please."

The simple, heartfelt words and pleading expression nearly undid him, but he firmly held his ground. "Not yet, Shal. Give Emma a few more hours, okay? As soon as she wakes up, I'll call for you. But not before then."

Biting her lower lip, the feral wordlessly agreed and sank back into the couch next to Brennan, allowing him to slip his arm about her shoulders for support.

TBC…